Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 1024: Chapter 714: Seal the Gate_2

"It’s here." Yang Xiao led the team and was the first to reach the building’s entrance. Similar to a hospital building, there was a warning sign outside the shattered glass door, written in red letters: Dangerous Building, Do Not Approach!

The glass door was locked, but most of the glass on the left side had broken, so Yang Xiao and Qu Hong easily slipped inside. To Yang Xiao’s surprise, this building actually had two elevators. Even the main hospital building only had one. Leadership sure had its perks.

The facilities inside the building were outdated from today’s perspective, but back in the day, they were definitely high-end.

The building had long been abandoned, and the elevators were no longer in operation. The interior was pitch black. Yang Xiao and Qu Hong, armed with flashlights, ventured into the stairwell and started climbing the stairs.

A musty odor lingered in the stairwell, and the floor was littered with trash—clothes, books, glass jars, and hastily discarded suitcases.

The suitcases were open, revealing some dirty, unidentifiable clothes inside. It seemed as if the residents had received an urgent notice and evacuated in a hurry. No doubt, all of this was related to the supernatural event at the hospital on the night of May 14th.

The stairwell echoed with their footsteps, but the building itself was far from silent. Wind would occasionally howl through broken windows, filling the corridors with eerie noises.

Walking behind, Qu Hong was highly alert, frequently shining her flashlight behind them. She intermittently heard a low sobbing sound mingled with the strange noises, as if someone was crying. She couldn’t tell whether it was her imagination or if something was truly there. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

She informed Yang Xiao of her discovery. Yang Xiao listened for a while but couldn’t discern any crying sound; it seemed to him to be just the wind howling.

They finally reached the seventh floor. However, when they stood at the door of Room 706, they found it was different from the other rooms. This door was made of iron, severely rusted from years of neglect. The lock’s keyhole was tightly blocked, with the key broken off inside.

The twisted part left outside indicated it had been forcibly broken to seal the keyhole.

Additionally, Yang Xiao noticed leftover adhesive marks around the door frame and gap, forming an "X" shape. This familiar sight immediately triggered Yang Xiao’s memory, resembling the standard practice of their Patrol Defense Office. Whenever there was a suspected supernatural incident, they would seal the location, awaiting further handling.

Their seasoned expertise showed through. Neither Yang Xiao nor Qu Hong hesitated; they decided to break in and investigate. This was related to Captain Zhou’s team’s safety and, crucially, to obtain the key.

Fortunately, Qu Hong found a hammer in the adjacent room, which had an open door. Yang Xiao had her stand guard, while he swung the hammer at the lock. There was no turning back once they started. Using all his strength, it only took Yang Xiao seven or eight blows to bust the lock—the lock wasn’t high quality, luckily.

As the door opened, both Yang Xiao and Qu Hong instinctively stepped back. But after waiting several seconds, nothing happened. Their flashlight beams revealed an unexpected sight; the room was not in disarray at all. A kettle, an enamel basin, and a soapbox were neatly arranged on the table. If not for the dust, it would seem like the room’s owner had just been there.

The room’s cleanliness sharply contrasted with the rushed chaos they had seen on their way up. Yang Xiao wedged a kitchen knife into the door gap and used a heavy object to prop the door open before cautiously entering the room with Qu Hong.

The room’s layout was simple: a small living room with a cloth sofa, a bedroom, and a compact bathroom.

They found nothing unusual in the living room. They opened a slightly ajar wooden door and entered the bedroom. Yang Xiao immediately noticed a large, black wardrobe standing in the corner. The wardrobe’s dark color made it feel out of place in the bedroom, giving off a stifling vibe. It looked like a coffin to Yang Xiao.

Gently opening the wardrobe, they found it packed with clothes: suits, a white coat, and trendy tracksuits from back in the day... Until Yang Xiao shuffled through the hanging clothes, making an unexpected discovery.

"This..." Qu Hong’s eyes widened. Behind the clothes were various types of underwear and, affixed to the back wall of the wardrobe, a dozen pairs of neatly arranged high-heeled shoes, toes pointing down, heels up.

There were no duplicates among the underwear or high-heeled shoes, with many styles and a large quantity, enough to make one’s head spin.

"This Vice Director sure knows how to have fun. An old perv with a young heart," Qu Hong said, picking up a pair of pink high heels, unexpectedly finding stockings stuffed inside.

Yang Xiao casually picked up a few shoes to inspect, frowning. "These shoes are all different sizes. They don’t belong to one person."

"And, other than the women’s high heels and underwear, there are no normal women’s clothes here."

Qu Hong immediately understood. "It appears Vice Director Huang often brought different women here to spend the night. Probably an abuse of power."

Yang Xiao held a red high heel in his hand. To Qu Hong’s surprise, he took off his shoe and slipped his foot into the high heel. Unexpectedly, it fit comfortably.

"This woman had such big feet?" Qu Hong was astonished. Yang Xiao was over six feet tall, yet the high heel was even larger than his foot. And this was at least 30 years ago, unlike today with generally better nutrition.

"BANG!"

A sudden thud sounded from outside, as if someone had forcefully kicked the door. Yang Xiao dropped the high heel and quickly put his own shoes back on. They rushed out, shining their flashlights everywhere. There was nobody, not even a hint of a ghostly figure.

In the next moment, Yang Xiao looked down and realized with a start that the kitchen knife he had wedged in the door gap was missing.

"Let’s go!"

Realizing the danger, Yang Xiao chose a different route, avoiding the most direct and familiar path, fearing that a knife-wielding ghost might be waiting for them there.

"Did you hear the sound of a bell?" Yang Xiao asked.

"No!" Qu Hong followed closely behind Yang Xiao. There was no plan now, just run.

Fortunately, they escaped from the building unscathed, not even pausing to catch their breath, sprinting back to the car.

Seeing Yang Xiao and Qu Hong running like crazed, Boss Sun and Xi Huijun were terrified, thinking a ghost was chasing after them. But there was nothing behind them.

Only after reaching the car did Yang Xiao and Qu Hong relax a bit. They decided not to tell Boss Sun and Xi Huijun about their ordeal, as it would only cause more panic.

Seeing Yang Xiao evading the topic, Boss Sun dared not press further. In the next moment, he suddenly slapped his forehead as if remembering something. "Oh no, I almost forgot. We got a call earlier— they found out about Vice Director Huang."

"What did they say?" Instantly energized, Qu Hong stood up from her crouched position and pressed for details.

"The information is not detailed, but they found out that he died, and under very strange circumstances. They’re still investigating the specifics, but we should have more info soon."

"Dead?" Yang Xiao felt a shiver. "How did he die?"

"Here, the message they sent." Boss Sun pulled out his phone, tapping a few buttons before showing the screen to Yang Xiao.

It showed just a few lines of text, apparently extracted from an autopsy report, stating that Huang Zhihong died from sudden myocardial infarction, with the time of death between the night of May 9th and the early morning of the following day.

"Damn it!!"

Yang Xiao cursed and started running toward the hospital building. "Qu Hong, follow me! We need to get the message out—this Vice Director Huang is a ghost!!"